Wednesday dinner

Today's dinner did not go as planned - yes, we ate pork tenderloin, but we did not have the radishes with it. After some thought, I figured they'd last longer than the other, more delicate vegetables, and could therefore wait to be used until later in the week. (We'll see if I'm right in a few days.) So tonight the menu was:

Ginger-garlic pork tenderloin
P's couscous salad
Roasted asparagus

Because today I wasn't feeling all that energetic, both the pork tenderloin and couscous salad are of P's creation - I was his sous chef today, preparing the asparagus for roasting and chopping the vegetables for the salad. The result was a summery mix of textures and tastes that I could easily see eating too much of. This salad is great to bring for next-day lunches, since it's everything in one package, and is fine cold or at room temperature (or even hot, if you're so inclined). The couscous salad recipe is modified from recipes found who-knows-where.

For the couscous:
2 1/3 cups homemade chicken broth
1 1/3 cups whole wheat couscous
2 tsp ground cumin
1 3/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
For the dressing:
juice and zest of 1/2 large orange (approx. 4 tbsp of juice)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Add-ins:
1/3 cup goat cheese, broken into pieces
3 medium-sized tomatoes
3/4 of a large cucumber (approx. the same volume as the tomatoes)
3 large green onions, white and green parts, sliced thinly crosswise
1 19 oz (540 mL) can of chickpeas, rinsed
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 tbsp mint, chiffonaded

Boil the chicken broth. Mix couscous and spices in large heat-safe bowl. Whisk together orange juice, zest, oil, salt, and pepper. When chicken broth is boiling, add to bowl with couscous and cover with plastic wrap until it has soaked up all of the liquid. (Follow the directions on the package for proportions of liquid to couscous.) Fluff with a fork. Add cheese first, then vegetables, chickpeas, capers, mint, and dressing; mix. Eat, or let sit in the refrigerator for a while before eating.

The roasted asparagus was simple: drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper, and roast at 450 degrees F until tender. This was done while the pork was resting - it really only takes a few minutes.